British Labour Movement
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By Terry McPartlan, Tynemouth CLP (personal capacity)
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Wednesday, 10 February 2010 |
Over the last 40 years we have had two periods of Tory rule; one was
Thatcher and Major’s period in office from 1979 to 1997. But there was
another period between 1970 and February 1974 when Ted Heath was
installed in Downing Street. The Tory attempts to attack the working
class and attack the workers’ organisations rebounded badly then.
Should Labour lose the next election, it’s clear that an incoming Tory
government would be a government of crisis. An industrial and, at a
later stage, a political response to their attacks from the working
class would be on the cards.
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By A UNITE member (Formerly ISTC Lackenby)
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Thursday, 21 January 2010 |
1980 saw the steelworkers become one of the first group of workers to
take on the new Thatcher Tory government, which had been elected in
1979. A union member involved at the time looks back at the action
which marked the start of the new decade.
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By David Brandon
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Wednesday, 06 May 2009 |
The following letter from a Socialist Appeal reader was published in The Times
letters page for May 5th as part of a series of responses to an article
on Thatcher's legacy in a previous issue of the newspaper. We are
reproducing it here for those who missed it.
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By Terry McPartlan
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Wednesday, 06 May 2009 |
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In 1983 Labour lost the election by a landslide. This gave the right wing in the Party their opportunity to fight back. The New Labour cry that the 1983 Labour Manifesto was the “longest suicide note in history” is utter nonsense. If anything the manifesto was less radical than the 1974 manifesto. There was a huge amount of Tory luck in the 1983 general election, Thatcher had managed to pull off a military victory and the SDP traitors had divided the Labour vote.
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By Terry McPartlan
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 |
"Where there is discord may we bring
harmony..." said Margaret Thatcher 30 years ago this May when she was
elected as British Prime Minister in 1979. Some politicians are remembered for
their achievements, in Aneurin Bevan's case the founding of the NHS; others
like Tony Blair will be remembered as warmongers and traitors to the ideals of
the Labour movement. Meanwhile John Major will be remembered, if at all, for
his ineffectual personality and his blandness. But very few will have been
hated by working people with such intensity as Margaret Thatcher.
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By Phil Mitchinson in 2004
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 |
An essential lesson to draw from the miners' strike is the vital role of leadership. The miners' leaders stood head and shoulders above the majority of British trade union leaders at this time. Arthur Scargill in particular demonstrated an unbending will to struggle in the face of the most appalling personal abuse and character assassination. In this sense the leaders of the union were a source of inspiration for the miners in the areas. At the same time these leaders were inspired by the courage and determination of the rank and file miners, of their wives and their communities. Unfortunately courage alone is not enough to win such titanic battles.
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By Phil Mitchinison in 2004
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Friday, 20 March 2009 |
Twenty-five years ago on March 5, 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) embarked upon the most important class struggle in Britain since the general strike of 1926. A ferocious battle ensued. Billions of pounds were spent by the ruling class to crush the miners’ militancy. More than ten thousand miners were arrested; two were killed on the picket lines and countless others injured. Decades of so-called consensus were obliterated and the real and ugly face of British capitalism was exposed for all to see.
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By Mick Brooks
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Thursday, 05 March 2009 |
The ruling class did not forget the humiliation of Saltley Gate in 1972. After 1974 the Tories began to contemplate vengeance. As we
reported they worked out a calculated plan (The Ridley Report) for the bosses
to regain the initiative and settle accounts with an over-mighty working class.So, as soon as Labour was turfed out in 1979, Thatcher
and the Tories began a systematic confrontation with the labour movement. They
started by introducing anti-trade union laws to strengthen their hand – making
secondary picketing illegal and demanding a ballot before any industrial
action.
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By Nigel Pearce in 2004
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Thursday, 05 March 2009 |
Twenty five years ago on March 5th 1984, miners at Cortonwood pit walked out. That was the beginning of the great 1984-85 miners' strike. Nigel Pearce of the Yorkshire National Union of Mineworkers and a participant was interviewed by Socialist Appeal in 2004 about the strike. "
The
strike is full of lessons. One of the main ones is the need for unity among the
working class, that stands out above all else - unity is strength, and united
the working class can achieve anything. Divided we are weak, and even small
divisions can have a destructive effect."
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By Anthony Healy
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Monday, 16 February 2009 |
Today, almost 25 years since the miners’ strike
began, the industry has been decimated, with only a few thousand jobs left. The
proud traditions remain as the Durham Miner’s Gala demonstrates each year, and
many miners have taken their fighting traditions into the wider labour
movement. But many of the pit villages are crumbling and the social effects may
never be completely overcome, on the basis of capitalism.
But this destruction wasn’t an ‘act of god’ or some huge work of nature
like the tsunami. This was a deliberately worked out plan. It was an attempt to
take on and smash the most militant determined and class conscious section of
the organised labour movement. And this was seen as a critically important task
by the ruling class ad their chosen instrument, the Tory Party. It even had a
name, the Ridley Report.
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By David Brandon
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Tuesday, 09 September 2008 |
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The Labour
Movement must learn from the lessons provided by its own history. The trade
unions were created out of class struggle. To establish themselves they had to
fight the hostility of Parliament, the courts, the employers and the media. Here we trace how the TUC arose from the need
to secure a legal basis for the developing union movement in the 1860s.
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Thursday, 31 July 2008 |
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In September 1931,
the sailors of the Atlantic Fleet of the British Royal Navy organised an
insurrection against the government in response to pay cuts and conditions of
employment. Known as the Invergordon Mutiny, it is one of the historical
examples of the power of class-based action in response to attacks on living
standards.
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By David Brandon
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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A name etched into the collective consciousness of the labour and trade
union movement is that of the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs', a case which clearly demonstrated that the State is
not a neutral instrument, but the means by which the ruling class will
use peaceful means by preference and violence if necessary in order to
maintain its power. So who were the Tolpuddle Martyrs,
what did they do and what lessons do they have for socialists in the
twenty-first century?
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By David Brandon
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
Pentrich in Derbyshire is a quiet place these days. But in 1817 it was the centre of a plot to
overthrow the Government of the day. Britain had been at war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic
France almost continuously until 1815. When war ended, the
economy slumped. It was the poor who had borne the brunt
of the fighting. Now they were required to bear the economic and
social fallout from the subsequent peace.
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Tuesday, 15 January 2008 |
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In April and May of 1797 the British ruling
class was horrified when two naval mutinies broke out; the first was at
Spithead, close to Portsmouth; the second at the Nore which marks the seaward
approach to the Thames Estuary.
The State
can ultimately be reduced to bodies of armed men. These bodies of armed men are
used by the ruling class either to maintain its power against what it sees as
internal enemies, to defend itself against foreign aggression, or in support of
its own aggressive action against foreign nations. Since its power lies in its
ability to threaten or actually to use force, the ruling class regards anything
that jeopardises the effectiveness of the State apparatus with the utmost
seriousness. This explains why mutinies in the armed forces are of such concern
to them.
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